Film and television comic actor whose deadpan humor makes life's mundane annoyances hilarious. He played country hotel manager Basil Fawlty in England's brilliant television series Fawlty Towers (1975–79) and appeared in the Monty Python films, including Monty Python and the Holy Grail (1975) and Monty Python's The Meaning of Life (1983). His other films include Time Bandits (1981), A Fish Called Wanda (1988), and Fierce Creatures (1997). Cleese appeared in the 1999 James Bond film The World Is Not Enough as inventor “R,” the replacement for the retired “M.”